Can we all agree that the buzz around Web 2.0 has reached the heights that the term “Information Superhighway” did back in 1996? Virtually every marketing and technology blog known has written about it and have beaten it into the ground. So why am I writing about it now? Laziness? Apathy?

The truth is, Web 2.0 and the range of supportive technologies, coding standards and widgets have finally allowed community site administrators as well as ALL of their users to interact at a much deeper level than has ever been available before. Hence my attention.

Whether it was dial-up bulletin boards of the 1980s or Internet access providers like Prodigy and AOL in the 1990s, people with common interests have always found a way to get together online. Today, community development tools such as Ning have empowered site administrators to quickly and efficiently build and manage community sites. From the user’s perspective, members can now share their perspective just as easily using Web 2.0 enhancements. The increased user — and very friendly functionality — is quickly becoming the norm of community sites.

Interaction within community sites has also moved to a much deeper level as the diversity of use increases. Take for instance the rise of Health 2.0, the related term of health care community sites that utilize Web 2.0 attributes to build greater interactivity for members. Health 2.0 buzz sites include ICYou.com (a new video player aspiring to become the “YouTube of Healthcare.”), PeerClip (a “social bookmarking tool” for physicians) and Imedix (peer illness interaction), just to name a few. In addition, web widget resources relating to specific use cases are being used by community users to greater build their personality or link to like minded individuals (see WidgetBox.)

Keeping the health perspective in mind, the improvement for community members to interact has driven the creation of a new level of social networking, or micro-communities. Until relatively recently, patients didn’t network. The fact is that “Health 2.0″ technology is now now enabling people with like backgrounds, causes or interests — even if they are a very small percentage of a larger-smaller group — to truly interact in a good way.

And that’s what the Internet is all about, isn’t it?

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